


Crime and Punishment

by Wolfsbanedraft



Category: Original Work
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Crime Fighting, Crime Scenes, Crimes & Criminals, Detectives, Domestic Fluff, Eventual Fluff, Eventual Smut, F/F, F/M, Fluff and Smut, M/M, Murder, Murder Mystery, One-Sided Attraction, Original Character(s), Original Fiction, Slow Burn, Soul Bond, Soulmates, Yandere
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-22
Updated: 2018-06-22
Packaged: 2019-05-26 16:53:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15005219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wolfsbanedraft/pseuds/Wolfsbanedraft
Summary: Young FBI agent Ava Gardner has solved many cases with her partner Charlie. Murders, Rapes, Kidnappings, it seemed like there'd never be a case they couldn't solve. She certainly never imagined there'd be a case she'd regret solving.





	1. Introduction

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first sort of original work so I'm sorry if it's rough around the edges.

Black boots squelched against the flooded asphalt, carefully avoiding the bright yellow evidence markers. The girl was used to side-stepping between spent casings at this point and she did so with ease even when carrying a tray full of coffee. It was a miracle, though, that there was any evidence left at all after the downpour that morning. She stopped a few feet away from the body, making eye contact with the glossy brown eyes of the corpse. Wordlessy she held out the tray to the person standing next to her. The tall man, her partner, grabbed the largest cup.

 

“Black?” He asked, even though he was already taking off the lid.

 

“Always. You’re still a walking stereotype aren’t you.” He spared her a tired glance before turning back to their third.

 

“Look, his throat was cut. Ear to ear.” He gestured on his neck dragging a gloved thumb over his skin. 

 

“Is that what killed him? Or was it a bullet? We found. . . One, two. . . Five bullet casings out here. Not counting the ones that washed away.” The girl hummed distractedly as she counted the markers.

 

“But,” Her partner prompted causing her attention to snap back to him. Blue eyes narrowed as she stepped closer to the victim. His clothes were ruffled and soaked through but there weren’t any signs of blood on the chest or the thighs.

 

“But he wasn’t shot. Are we looking for another victim?”

 

“Possibly. The storm may have washed the blood away, should still have GSR on the vic.” He sighed and ran a hand through his silver hair before reaching for a cigarette. “Ava, go give the rest of that coffee to the techs and take a look around the crime scene. See if you can find anything I missed. There’s nothing else for me to do here.” 

 

Ava nodded. “Your vision is pretty bad, Agent Old Man.” She watched over her shoulder as he lit his cigarette. Head tilted back he let out his first puff of smoke before raising his middle finger into the night air. She smiled and picked up the only tea among the coffees, raising it to her lips and breathing in the scent of mint. Taking slow and precise steps around the body she noticed something tucked beneath his jacket. Slipping a glove on Ava gently pulled back the cloth to reveal a sprig of lilac placed above his heart.

 

“Somehow.” She sighed. “ I feel like this case is going to be a pain in the ass.”

  
  



	2. Bad Signs

“So you didn’t find any prints on the casings, what about the body? Anything useful at all on it?” Charlie growled at the shaking forensic scientist. Ava put a hand on his shoulder and he eased back just the slightest amount, just enough for the frightened girl to start talking.

 

“We haven’t found anything on the body or the casings. Or on the lilacs agent Gardner found. But!” She added hastily as Charlie glowered at her. “It’s only been one day, and we can always keep looking!” He rolled his eyes and strode out of the lab, seemingly done with the conversation and the girl. Ava trailed after him mouthing “I’m sorry” to the poor girl. She had to jog after her partner to catch up before he got into the elevator. She glanced up at him as he mashed the ground floor button over and over again. 

 

“I think it’s dead, Charlie.” She chuckled. “Although if you really want to beat something down I think that lab tech still has some pride left.” Ava pointed to the door with her thumb as Charlie rubbed his temples. 

 

“You’re a brat, you know that?” He sighed.

 

“I know.” She hummed, leaning against the scummy elevator wall. “So what’s the plan partner?”

 

Charlie ran a hand over his face tiredly, still wearing the gloves from yesterday. “The plan. . . The plan is I’ll look through the security footage the techs brought over while you get us some food.” Ava turned towards him quickly, more than a trace of anger on her face.

 

“You can’t keep doing this to me you know. I can do actual work.” She hissed. 

 

“I know you can.” He replied, green eyes boring into hers. Ava shook her head and moved closer to the door. As soon as she heard the soft ding of the elevator she was out, only stopping when her partner grabbed her arm. Charlie gripped her tightly, black gloves riding up and exposing the burned flesh and flecks of gold beneath. “Hey. When you get back we’ll go through the case file together. You’re better at seeing the personal side of things. . . Okay?”

 

She didn’t look at him. “Okay.” Charlie let her go reluctantly and Ava could feel his gaze on her as the elevator door closed behind her. She didn’t know what to think anymore. It was like Charlie changed day to day. She never knew if he’d have her working alongside him or running errands for him. It seemed like today was one of the latter. 

 

Lost in thought she made it to her destination, a small mom and pop diner, without realising it. She made a beeline for the counter, cutting off another patron on her way.

 

“Shit I’m sorry, my brain isn’t all there today.” Said Ava once she realised what she’d done. The other customer, a tall black haired man, just laughed and waved it off.

 

“It’s okay. You go ahead.” He chuckled.

 

“Are you sure? You were here first, you should go.”

 

“No, please, I insist. I’m just getting a latte anyways, it can wait.” The man grinned down at her as he stepped out of the way.

 

“Thanks! I appreciate it, got mouths to feed back at the office.” She joked. Mentally cursing herself at her attempt at humor.

 

“No problem, I. . . Oh,” He said suddenly, staring at the image on the back of her neck. Ava’s hand immediately went to cover the image when she saw what he was looking at. Fingers hiding lilacs surrounded by a thin line of gold. Her soul mark. “Oh! Sorry, sorry, I didn’t mean to stare.” The stranger apologized hastily. “It’s just beautiful. Lilac, right?”

 

“Right. Thank you,” She told him. Ava ran her hand lightly over her dark brown hair, she’d forgotten she put it in a bun today. She wasn’t sure why she had thought she put it down. She never wears it like that anyways. “It’s actually my favorite flower, quite the coincidence right?”

 

“Maybe it’s just fate.” He hummed, black eyes staring at her mark contentedly as she started to place her order.

 

Meanwhile agent Goodman, or Charlie, was working through hours and hours of security footage from the night before. He felt terrible. It was an odd mix of guilt and anger that didn’t get any better when all the footage went black at nine p.m. . Checking and rechecking got him nothing but a headache and the sinking feeling that this case was going to be more complicated than he thought. He had a body with no evidence, a location with no footage of the killing or the dump, and he still didn’t have a name for the vic. Charlie sat back, putting his legs up on his desk, and let his mind go over all the facts again. The body was fresh, M.E. said it had only been dead for around an hour when they found him at ten so there wouldn’t be a missing persons report yet. That is, if the killer had just murdered him on the spot. If he or she had kidnapped him first there may be people looking for him.

 

He had just started to comb through the latest reports when Ava opened the door to his office. “We should really have a talk with Harvey the security guard about his searches. Like, I know this is the FBI but I don’t need him crushing my food every time I bring a bag in.” She griped. She was seemingly in a better mood then when she left which Charlie was thankful for. “I’ve got your tuna with siracha on rye, disgusting, and my BLT with chipotle mayo, not disgusting. Oh! And for dessert I have this,” Ava placed the bag down on his desk while she rummaged through her messenger bag. After a moment she pulled out a brown folder with the FBI logo on it and handed it to Charlie. “Sheila handed me this on the way up, our victim’s name is Thomas Lindholm. Apparently his landlord called today saying he disappeared last night after leaving in a rush around eight p.m. . She tried calling him multiple times but he never picked up and then she saw the body on the news today. And I quote ‘I just knew it was poor old mr Lindholm as soon as I laid eyes on that body’.”

 

“I guess that’s why you took an hour to get sandwiches?” Charlie asked her goodnaturedly, still afraid she might be sour from earlier.

 

“Yeah, that and some other stuff,” Ava responded ambiguously, ducking her head to hide a faint flush on her cheeks. Charlie raised a brow but knew at this point in their partnership that she wouldn’t tell him anything she didn’t want to. “We should go check out his place after we eat, if you think I can handle field work that is.”

 

“You’re never going to let that go, are you, kid.”

 

“Not for, at least, another week.” Ava shrugged, tucking in to her sandwich. 

 

\-------

The two agents finished eating quickly, used to taking whatever time they could get between cases, and piled into a sedan. The address wasn’t too far from their field office in Richmond in fact it was in the closest suburb. The apartments looked shabby and run down with only a few good houses dotting the streets. ‘Is it too much to hope that this guy lived in one of the better complexes?’ Ava thought. She couldn’t stand another search of a scummy cockroach bathroom especially when she was wearing new pants. As luck would have it they never made it past the living room. As soon as they climbed the stained concrete stairs and opened the victims front door they realized that every bad feeling they had about this case was true.


End file.
